It's gonna rain
by Ninja Liz-chan
Summary: How does a boy become a ghost? The untold story behind Liam Mcmillian. Prequel to "I was born to walk in the Rain"
1. No one Mourns the Wicked

It's Gonna Rain

Chapter one

No One Mourns the Wicked

Leanne Gover

A Danny Phantom Fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Danny Phantom, the world or the characters. The only thing I own in this whole thing is the fan characters (which is really more than half the cast but that's besides the point). They all belong to Nickelodeon and Butch Hartman.

Warnings: Blood, violence and slight language.

Author's notes: I apologize in advance to any misuse of Irish slang.

McMillan was a fairly normal child in the eyes of society. He would smile and say hello to everybody. He acted friendly and energetic towards his fellow students. He was very interested in literature, even if math and science didn't catch his attention at all. Many people would comment on how well behaved he was but in general he didn't stand out. So nobody paid any real attention to him. Liam actually rather liked that.

One thing people did notice was that Liam never cried, not once in his life, even when he was a baby. That often worried his mother but his father had no issue with it however. He figured it was just as good - less headaches for him when he had a hangover. "Never show your true emotions. That's a weakness that people will use against ye," Liam remembered his father telling him before sending him off to his first day of school. It was the one thing Liam actually got out of his father that ever was of any use to him, after all you can't get much out of a drunken lump now, can you?

Yes, things seemed fairly normal in the lives of these Irish dwelling citizens…until one fateful day that is.

An earth-shattering scream ran throughout the house. Anna McMillan had fallen backwards on to the ground with a horrified look plastered on her face. In front of her was the source of her horror: the bloody remains of what used to be family dog. It was anything but a clean kill. Somebody had fun ripping the poor animal limb from limb.

"Uuu…What the bloody 'ell is goin' on here?" mumbled a rather irritated Doran McMillan. He had dark bags under his eyes and smelled strongly of beer and cigarettes. He stopped dead in his tracks as he saw what his wife had seen. "Bloody….I'm in me wick!" He groaned and continued with a rather long run of strong swear words.

At that point young Liam poked his head into the room. He was thirteen at the time and was staring intently at the mess in front of him. He slapped on a look of fear and said, "Who would do such a terrible thing!" Even he found it hard to hide the smile he had deep inside his heart at this sight. His father and mother had no idea that he hated that dog. When he was small, the dog was a great companion…until it decided that Liam was better use as a chew toy than a friend.

"That's bloody it. Too many warped things 'ave been 'appenig around 'ere." His father grunted, helping his wife to her feet. "We're leaving. Moving far away." Anna nodded and buried her face in her husband's chest. He began to stroke her red hair in an attempt to calm her down.

Something in Liam snapped at that point. "Wha…What! Da! Away with ye! Ye can't be serious! One bad thin' 'appens and ye want to move away? Da I like it 'ere!" Inside Liam began to panic. He was doing so well here. People left him alone here. If he went somewhere else they might notice…'it'.

"Some bloke stormed our house and slaughtered me dog! Dogs have been goin' missing for the past year. People 'ave been leaving 'ere for a while! Saying somtin' scared their kids bad. What if this somthin' catches up to ye?! There'll be wigs on the green before I let that 'appen!" Liam's father gave him a stern look that caused the room to go dead silent.

Liam couldn't respond to that, not if he wanted 'it' to stay silent. So the family moved, without so much as a hitch, away from their Irish home to Scotland.

Ireland seemed too far away. Especially now that Liam not only had to move away from his beloved home but was now sent to a boarding school on the north end of Scotland. Liam hated how cold it always was. Here he had no real place to hide and think. There were people everywhere, and it made him rather on edge. He had already been shoved into a dorm with three other boys: a blond bimbo named Eamon who was more concerned with getting the girls attention than anything else, a mousy boy by the name of Arthur and an overconfident brunette boy by the name of Jackson. They all ticked him off, but he quickly pretended to like them so as to not stand out.

He yet again seemed to be the nice normal child he appeared to be. People liked him; anybody who didn't was quickly transferred away and was never heard from again. Not a lot of people thought about it until later. Looking back, they thought he was such a nice person.

"'Here, stand behind this bulk; straight will he come. Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home. Quick, quick; fear nothing; I'll be at thy elbow. It makes us, or it mars us; think on that, And fix most firm thy resolution,'" Liam recited energetically as he stood upon the stage. The spotlight shone upon him as he recited the lines from the play "Othello". He looked a little funny in his costume but nobody seemed to care. Even if they didn't understand the Shakespearean mess coming out of his mouth, Liam's performance was quite entertaining.

He was an actor, in more ways than most people thought. In his last year and a bit of being a part of this school he had participated in four drama productions. It was the one place he could show off his acting talents with people actually realizing he was acting. The play ended with death and dismemberment as all good plays should. The applause was thunderous and grand. He enjoyed every minute of it.

Afterwards Liam began to walk towards his dorm. Now changed into his school uniform, he adjusted his favorite red tie slightly and listened to the gossip as he walked by.

"Did you hear? The floor of the gym fell in the other day!" one girl exclaimed with panic in her voice.

"Really?! Was anybody hurt?" another cried.

"Somebody has a broken leg, but other than that I don't think so. They were lucky nobody was killed!" said the first.

"I hear this school is haunted! Just the other day some girls and I were walking by the third floor dorms and a lamp fell in front of us! If we were any closer it would have hit us!"

Liam's outward expression stayed neutral but the whole thing had him giggling inwards. At first he was afraid that 'it' would be caught before too long, but so far he'd been flawless. Nobody had noticed a thing about dear, sweet Liam McMillan.

"Hey Liam!" a voice called out behind him. The teen turned to see Eamon running towards him. The blond looked rather flustered and distraught. By the time he caught up with Liam, he was out of breath. He huffed and puffed for a second before trying to fix his hair. "Hey! Remember when I said a group of the twelfth graders went missing?"

A look of concern melted onto Liam's features. "Aye, they went missing a week ago right?"

"Well they found them! They were in the basement of the school!" Eamon cried, looking completely freaked out by this situation. "If the janitor hadn't have gone to check out that room they might have never gotten out!" the boy said, fiddling with his hair.

"Who would do such a thing?!" Liam managed to spit out. Not that he really needed an answer. He already knew who the culprit was.

"I don't know! The group only managed to say they heard a voice calling for help. They went to investigate and the door closed on them!"

Liam looked dead serious for a moment and said "Maybe it was a ghost."

A look of annoyance slipped on to the other boy's face. "Oh, not you, too! The whole school is up in arms about some spook haunting this place. Ghosts aren't real!"

Liam smiled a goofy grin and moaned out, "Ooooooof coooouurrse there isss!" He raised his arms and wiggled them about.

Eamon stuck his tongue out and said, "Haha, very funny, McMillan."

He shrugged and said, "Ye know I'm kidding. As much as I like Shakespeare, life isn't like his plays."

"Oh really? Is that so?" asked a soft voice behind the two boys. They both turned to see a rather handsome man with black hair that hung slightly around his face. The man looked rather normal, save for a long scar across one of his eyes. It had Liam wondering how such a thing got on the man's face. His eye looked fine, so it must not have been a very deep cut.

"Mr. Wicket!" Eamon replied back up at the sight of the guidance counselor behind them.

Liam put on an unimpressed face before looking at the older man. "'Ello," he mumbled. He never really got a good look at this man before, this mysterious teacher who joined the school about a month ago. He made Liam feel uncomfortable, even fearful. Maybe it was because Mr. Wicket was keeping a particularly close watch on Liam since he had arrived. Liam tried his best to ignore him, but it was getting increasingly annoying.

"Mr. McMillan, may I see you in my office?" Those words sent a cold spike through Liam's heart. Could Mr. Wicket possibly have discovered 'it'? This was not good. Panic welled up inside Liam's mind. However he kept a calm face.

He smiled sweetly and said, "Of course. Whatever ye want sir." 'Never show your true feelings,' he repeated over and over in his head as he followed the teacher to the small office. He sat down on a chair across from where the pale man sat. Liam childishly looked around the room. He spotted a rather nice-looking clock on the wall and a diploma with "Mr. Charles Wicket" handwritten on it neatly. The room was simply full of little knickknacks that Liam would do anything to play with.

"Liam…are you aware of what's going on at this school recently?" the man asked, brushing his bangs out of his face.

At this point, Liam had started to play with an hourglass that was on the counselor's desk. "Oh, this and that," he answered, seeming only to be half paying attention. In reality he was hanging on every word.

The man brushed his black bangs aside again and brought out a piece of paper. He began to read off the items listed on the page one by one. "Forty-two incidents of school equipment malfunctioning. Thirty-four incidents of vandalism. Twenty-seven incidents of students transferring. Nineteen incidents of missing persons; luckily they were all found…eventually. Lastly: four incidents of 'ghost sightings'." Mr. Wicket put down his paper and looked Liam dead in the eye. "All of this since you started school here."

Liam put on a smile on his face. "Really? What a coincidence. This ghost everybody keeps talking about must be pretty cranky."

Charles gave out a long sigh and continued his questioning. "Liam…do you know anything about any of this?" The smile on Liam's face was starting to tick him off.

"Ara be whist !" Liam said angrily at this point. He jumped to his feet and glared at Mr. Wicket. "Yer going around accusing ME of this aren't you? I 'ad nothing to do with this mess!" He stopped himself and calmed down slightly and just crossed his arms in a huff.

"Liam, I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm just saying that it may be someone in your grade. If you have any idea, please tell me. This person needs help. They need to get _professional_ help," Mr. Wicket said, trying to motion Liam back into his seat.

This only irritated Liam more. Help? What made this man think that he could HELP? "Ye mean sendin' them off to the nutter farm," he said bitterly before turning his back to the counselor. "I don't know anything … I'm leaving," he said walking out of the room in an angry huff. Charles sighed and stared at the open door, watching Liam storm down the hall. 'That could have gone better,' he thought.

"The nerve of 'im," Liam muttered to no one as he wandered down the hallway. The whole incident with that man had made him rather irritated. He didn't even realize he was mumbling to himself as he walked.

"Doll! Wait up!" called Jackson called as a brunette girl came storming out of the room right before Liam. Liam recognized the girl as Lisa, Jackson's girlfriend. A very pretty girl, almost every boy was lined up to see her, although up until now, they couldn't get past Jackson to see her.

"Don't you 'doll' me! Roslyn said you've been out with some tramp!" Lisa yelled at him, storming further down the hall.

"I…I never!" started Jackson, trying to get his scraggly brown hair out of his face.

"LIAR!" she screamed and broke into a run down the hall, running into an empty classroom, slamming the door behind her.

"Bollocks…" Jackson grumbled and rubbed his head slightly. "How on earth did this happen, Liam?" He said, noticing his dorm mate standing next to him now. "I've never been with anybody else! You believe me, right?"

Liam patted Jackson's arm in a concerned fashion. "Of course I do," he said reassuringly. _That_ wasn't a lie. Liam did believe Jackson. "I don't know where she got the idea in her head about this at all." Though, that _was_ a lie. He knew perfectly well how she got the idea. Such nasty things rumors are.

Click! The door closed behind Liam as he walked into the all but empty classroom. "JACKSON! I said..!" The green eyed girl abruptly stopped as she looked up to see Liam instead of the boy she had first assumed it to be. "Oh…I'm sorry, Liam. I didn't see you there."

A small smile crossed his face. "It's no worry, Lisa." He walked up next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Ye alright?'

"No. My heart's been shattered. I just want to be alone, Liam," she said pushing Liam away. She didn't get very far before Liam grabbed her arm and pulled her close to him. "Liam…what are you…?"she started, slightly frightened by Liam's sudden forcefulness. Suddenly and without warning, Liam slammed his lips into hers. It didn't last long though - a sharp slap to cheek caused him to back off and let go of the girl. He glared back at Lisa. She wasn't supposed to do this. She was supposed to do what HE wanted. He had had the whole scene transcribed in his head. Why was it not going according to his plan?

Lisa backed up at the now hungry look in Liam's eyes. "Ye little..!!" He straightened himself out and had a look of cold death on his face. "Ye were supposed to become mine. I went though a lot of trouble trying to get you here."

Lisa fearfully stared and the now cold and cruel creature that stood before her. "Love…love doesn't work that way!" She staggered out.

"Who said anything about that damned emotion?! I was just trying to make myself look normal! Normal people 'ave girlfriends right?" Liam nearly hissed at her. He yanked out a knife he had hidden on his person and looked at her with an evil smile on his face.

"Li…Liam…What are you…?" she asked with a voice so shaky it sounded like a phone breaking up.

"Ye've seen 'it'. I can't afford you telling anybody," he said dryly. "Goodbye Lisa."

"Jackson," the soft voice of Mr. Wicket said behind Liam's three dorm mates. They seemed to be comforting Jackson on his recent break-up. "Something is very wrong with Liam. Maybe you guys could talk to him? You're his friends. Maybe he'll listen to you."

"Sure, but I don't see what the problem is. Liam is the most stable out of the four of us. Why do you think something wrong?" Arthur said fiddling with his glasses.

"Just a feeling I had." Suddenly Mr. Wicket had a horrid look on his face and he looked at the clock that hung from the wall. He quickly let out a noise that was mostly unrecognizable to the teenagers in front of him. They could catch a few swears mixed in with whatever else he was saying.

"Mr. Wicket! What's wrong?!" Eamon asked nervously. He didn't get an answer as the counselor ran off down the hall.

The group of boys chased after him until they spotted the man in front of a classroom door. He looked defeated and sad just looking at the door.

"Mr. Wicker?" The blond said, almost scared to know the answer.

"I'm too late," he muttered quietly. "All this power and I…can't even be on time." The world seemed to stand still and he slowly pushed the door open.

Dead silence crossed the group as the saw the room. Blood was everywhere - on the desks, on the walls and most importantly, all over Liam McMillan.

"LIAM!" Jackson screamed. He quickly scanned the room to see where the blood had come from. When he saw the limp body of Lisa on the floor, he let out a half sob, half scream.

Liam began to panic as he saw the group stumble upon his lovely mess. His eyes narrowed as he saw it was Mr. Wicket that led them to him. That man…why was he such a thorn in his side? More people now had seen 'it'. He couldn't kill them all. So he ran, straight through the window. He didn't care how much it hurt. He only cared about getting away. Shards of glass flew everywhere as he ran out as fast as he could.

The others followed. They had to stop him. Jackson needed answers. This was just…unbelievable.

Mr. Wicket fell to his knees. He glanced at the amulet he had wrapped around his wrist. Nobody really noticed he carried it, but if you looked closely he was never without it. "I thought…just maybe I could change it. " He murmured to himself. He took one long look at his amulet…his cog-shaped amulet.

Liam was cornered. The rocky cliffs that lead to the ocean laid in front of him while an angry mob of betrayed friends were closing in behind him. What was a young psychopath to do?

"Why'd you do it?" Eamon said, looking more distraught than normal. "Why, Liam?! You lied to us!" Liam had been the one all along. Everything started to click in their heads as they thought it through. Now it made sense…all the times Liam had disappeared without warning.

Arthur began to cry slightly. It was just too much for him. The person he considered his friend stood before him, covered in blood and running away from the scene of the crime. Why wasn't he saying anything? "You've been the one … all along, haven't you?"

Jackson clenched his fists and bowed his head. Trying to stop himself from strangling the boy in front of him now was proving to be a harder task to do with each passing second. "You spread those rumors. You're the one that played all those pranks and now…now she's DEAD! Why Liam?! WHY!?" he yelled, feeling his face turn red with hatred.

"Because I was bored." Liam turned his head towards them, a sweet smile on his face. "Normal life is so boring. I just wanted to have a little fun."

At this point Jackson couldn't contain his temper any longer. He leaped forward and grabbed Liam by the front of his sweater vest. "YOU! How can you say things like that?! YOU SODDING BASTARD!"

Liam let his mask slip for a second, revealing his true feelings of utter fear at Jackson. "Let go!" he yelled as he pushed the boy away. He had been too close to the cliff, and he lost his balance. He fell. He didn't scream as he did, but everybody heard the bone-chilling splash as his body hit the water. They never saw him resurface.

Mr. Wicket looked down the rocky mass of land, slowly scanning for signs of life. He had missed Liam falling down, but he knew it had happened. "I could have saved them. Now….two more people have died violent deaths. Two more ghosts in the world."

"This is why we told you to ignore this incident. You were a fool to think you could alter this boy's fate. It was set in stone by forces not even you could understand," said a voice behind the counselor. "We gave you that medallion and granted you the power to take on that human form to show you this. It's foolish to try and change it…Clockwork."

The ghost of time sighed, and untangled the amulet from his wrist. His ghostlike appearance returned to him at that moment: his purple cape, blue skin and everything else. "Come now Clockwork, you've done enough damage. We have to keep an eye on this…world war the humans are about to start," said an Observant, a giant eyeball with a cape.

"Leave that boy be, nobody will mourn his death. And I believe this is the second World War that is coming into play," said a second Observant to the first.

Clockwork took one final look back and sighed. "Nobody mourns the wicked, do they?"

End Chapter One


	2. Die this way

It's Gonna Rain

Chapter two

Die this way

Leanne Gover

A Danny Phantom Fanfic

Water had surrounded him. It poured into his lungs and froze every inch of his body. He tried to breath but it only resulted in more water slamming down into him. He panicked and began to thrash about trying to reach the surface. He found it more difficult to move with every moment. Suddenly he found he couldn't move at all. He began to sink deeper and deeper into the water. It was so cold it felt like a million tiny needles against his skin ripping him apart slowly. He slowly became numb and his world faded into black.

Liam jolted up with a start. He found himself gasping for air and quickly realizing that no air was coming into his lungs. However, he stopped suddenly as he realized it wasn't painful not to breathe. For some reason he felt that he didn't even need to anymore. Shrugging this feeling off, he began to survey his surroundings. What had happened? He fell...did he wash up somewhere? It was beginning to bother him again that he wasn't breathing. Also, he noticed it was incredibly cold in here.

He started to look around where he had landed. It appeared to be a small apartment decorated in a way that seemed just out of style, like the owner hadn't ventured out into the world in ten years, though it wasn't too strange - it had a chair, a dresser, a floating lamp-- wait...WHAT?! FLOATING?! He jumped to his feet and frantically flew over to the lamp. Then something hit him like a ton of bricks. He FLEW over. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked down. He was indeed floating several feet in the air. He spun around a little bit and then looked down at his hands, they where a light blue colour. He made a whimpering noise at the sight of his skin's abnormal color. He then continued looking over the rest of his body. He looked soaked, which is probably why he felt so wet still. His whole body seemed to give of a white glow. "WHAT THE BLOODY 'ELL!" he yelled rather loudly.

"Oh good. You've awakened," said a slightly whiney little voice. Liam leaned forward and looked down towards its source. He saw a man in a black coat with a large black hat on top of his hairless head. His glasses had red lenses but the man's face...well...was completely bare. No nose, no mouth, and no eyes laced his face. Just a blank slate with a pair of glasses magically stuck on.

"SWEET MOTHER OF JESUS! It's a DEMON NAZI!!" he screamed and flew up higher, away from the creepy looking man. He knew that the country was on the verge of war. Did he find himself captured by the Germans? Had a war already started? His thoughts quickly quieted however when he noticed what the man was carrying. "A Nazi with chocolate chip cookies?"

Even without facial features, it was obvious that the figure wasn't at all happy with Liam at that point. "What?! No! I'm not a Nazi! Nor am I a demon! I'm a ghost. Get it straight," the man said, his voice sounding quite irritated. He placed the tray of cookies on the table before flying up to the wet boy. "My name is Amorpho. Don't you forget it, kid."

Liam calmed down a little, regaining his mask. He began to repeat again the phrase his dad taught him in his head to calm himself down. Never show your true emotions. "Amorpho? That's a strange name." Then the words hit him. "Wait...did you say ghost? Then...Then I..." Liam sunk down to the floor. Though really he realized he wasn't really that shocked about it now that he thought about it. It made sense didn't it?

"Died. Yes," Amorpho said handing Liam a cookie.

Liam took it and examined it for a second. "Wait a minute, if I'm dead then can I even eat?" He said with a puzzled look on his face.

Amorpho gave a laugh that sounded very annoying. "Well, yes you can eat. The fact is though we don't really need to. We do it for pleasure more than anything."

'Say no more,' Liam thought as he chomped into the cookie. However, he quickly realized it didn't taste the way it should. It was if the cookie itself had been watered down. It almost didn't have a flavour anymore. He looked at Amorpho and noticed he wasn't eating. Well, then again he had no mouth so it was understandable.

"So, having no face must be...an inconvenience, eh? How does one even lose his face?" Liam said, pointing at Amorpho while grabbing another cookie. Even if it didn't taste 'right,' it was still free food.

"I'd... really rather not talk about that." He sunk deep into his outdated furniture and sighed. "Let's just say...it's ill-advised to play with acid." He coughed a bit before continuing. "Generally, people will look how they died as a ghost, sometimes with more drastic alterations such as flaming hair and sometimes there appearance changes entirely to look like an animal or a monster. You look like you died in water, am I correct?"

Liam nodded. At least that's what he remembered.

"Wait...so are we stuck like this?!" Liam said, letting himself get a little worked up. It felt so gross to feel this wet. He froze as his mind flashed to the ocean and the darkness that swallowed him whole.

"Afraid so. This place is like your own personal hell I would guess. I have seen ghosts however that don't have a care in the world. But then again, I see ghosts who are constantly in pain." Amorpho began to wring his wrists as he talked.

"So...this place is where everybody ends up. I guess religion was wrong," Liam mumbled. He was somewhat disappointed that 'hell' didn't exist. Perhaps it was warmer there.

"That I can't say. I think people must go somewhere else, too. I know not everybody who's died ended up here. I've also heard cases of ghosts passing on. Disappearing from this world entirely. Perhaps they go to heaven?" Amorpho said dreamily as he looked up at the ceiling.

Liam looked at Amorpho and fought the urge to laugh. If there was a heaven that ghosts go to afterwards... he knew he wasn't going to end up there. He then paused and looked at Amorpho. "Why are you telling me all this? Are you like some gatekeeper that's supposed to tell all new ghosts this speech?"

"Oh heck no," Amorpho said with a nasally laugh. "I usually hate new ghosts. They're always such whiners. I, like most other ghosts around here, leave newcomers to figure out things on their own."

"Then why...?" Liam started but was interrupted by Amorpho putting up his hand.

"You and I have something in common."

Liam's mind stopped for a slip second. Did he mean 'it'? Did he mean he was like him? Oh, the thought sent shivers up his spine and his inner monster smiled. "And what per say do we have in common?"

Amorpho looked straight at Liam and gave a slight laugh. "Why THIS of course." On the word 'this' he did something Liam had not expected. With a flip and switch Amorpho's whole body seemed to turn inside out. He no longer looked like a faceless man. In fact he looked like an exact replica of Liam. That is except for his eyes. They glowed a blood red colour instead of Liam's pool blue eyes.

Liam jumped back and couldn't hide his surprise at this. "What in the--?!" This surprise didn't last long, for it was quickly replaced by a look of happiness. "That's...amazing." He walked towards Amorpho and examined the ghost's features. It was like looking in a mirror. "You mean I can do this too?" The idea sparked a new fit of giddiness in his mind. This was better than finding another monster.

"That's right," Amorpho said though the words seemed to be coming from Liam. "And I can teach you. All I ask if that you don't tell anybody I've been doing it. I don't like the idea of me having an image of being helpful."

Liam cocked an eyebrow and said "All right, but why are you helping me at all then?" It's not that he wasn't ecstatic about the thought of harnessing this power, but he was always a little suspicious of people who were too nice. They were often too much like himself.

"I know this seems a little childish, but I don't want to be alone. Having no face here means people ignore you. It's maddening. I just want a little attention. If I taught you, you'd have to pay attention to me," Amorpho said giving a slightly sad laugh.

"Well, Mr. Nazi, I think that's reasonable.I don't think it's childish at all." Liam gave Amorpho his childish 'fake smile' that always hid his true emotions. "I know what it's like to have people ignore you. Life is no fun without some...contact with people." Little did Amorpho know that Liam's use of the word 'contact' was quite different from his own.

"Quite calling me a Nazi!" Amorpho groaned. "I don't even know what that is!"

Liam gave a chuckle. Perhaps being dead wasn't such a bad thing after all.

If only he wasn't so wet.

Liam quickly learned that 'The Ghost Zone', as Amorpho called it, was quite a bit bigger than the small little apartment that the doppelganger lived in. Outside the door was a whole world of doors, each one leading to some other ghost's place of residence. Liam and Amorpho would often go exploring the place. Liam found that the green light coming from the ghost zone's sky was a lot nicer than the sun. He found it amusing to watch things float by. He was learning how to use his powers quicker than Amorpho had expected. However that quickly revealed a few differences between the two ghosts. Liam could only change into only people while Amorpho could change into people, animals and even objects. Liam also noticed he couldn't stay transformed as long as Amorpho which Liam found annoying but so far he hadn't found a way to change this. Another strange side effect of transforming caused the tips of Liam's hair to dye themselves black. Liam couldn't figure out yet how to fix that, but he didn't mind so much. He actually thought it looked sort of neat.

That all aside, Liam seemed to improve his powers every day. That mixed with his acting abilities lead to trouble for the ghost zone. The better Liam got with his powers, the more pranks he and Amorpho would pull. If it wasn't for the fact his own body made him feel like he was going to throw up (or any mention of water for that matter) the afterlife would be perfect.

However, one thing often nagged him constantly at the back of his mind. Sure playing pranks on the other ghosts was fun, just like his previous life, but without the threat of death, but ever since he killed Lisa, a hunger began to grow in him. He wanted to...he wanted to feel that feeling again. Blood against his hands, flesh being cut. The more he thought about it the more he wanted it. It was impossible now though. He can't kill the other ghosts. He could case them pain and cause them to bleed a green liquid but it was not the same. He knew they would never die the way he wanted them too. He didn't dare tell Amorpho all this though. As much as he enjoyed the ghost's sense of humour he knew that he would never understand the other's longing for blood.

The two of them now stared up at t the green swirling sky. They had recently played a prank on a ghost Liam didn't know very well. What did he call himself… The box ghost? No matter. Liam and Amorpho had pretended to be box inspectors, and they then ripped apart all the boxes. They ran out of there to the ghost screaming various things about doom and bubble wrap at them. They both thought of course that was a hoot.

"Amorpho?" Liam turned his head slightly toward the only person he actually thought might be a 'friend.' "Can we...go to the human world from here?"

There was a long pause before the faceless ghost said. "It's hard to say. Portals to the human world open at random times. There never open for very long and you may find it very hard to get yourself back here. Why would you want to go there anyway? I don't think any ghost has left here for quite a while. "

Liam bit his lip and sat up. He looked down at the other ghost. "I just...miss my home." He frowned and thought about it for a second. "Damn...I'm also randomly picking up other peoples accents. I haven't sounded like myself in so long." Even though that was true, it wasn't the whole truth. He couldn't say he had a growing need to kill. No, not even Amorpho would understand that one.

"Heh, this place is bound to change you. There's no point living in the past though Liam. You can't get back to Earth. Not unless you're really lucky." Amorpho then stood up and brushed himself off.

Liam heard a growling noise. He then realized it had come from inside his own head. He was use to the voices talking to him... but this voice was a lot louder. He knew it wanted out. He knew it wanted blood. There was nothing he could do though but listen to the crescendo of growls inside his head.

"Well, I'm going home. See you later Liam," Amorpho said, and with that he flew off towards his house. Liam waved goodbye but stayed there for a second, staring at the swirly sky and listing to the growls in his mind. He sighed and then began to fly around, hoping to quiet down the voices. He liked flying. It felt nice. Wandering around aimlessly felt good too, though Liam soon would discover that he perhaps should plot his course a little better from now on.

THUNK! He hit someone very hard. He grumbled and rubbed his head. He plastered his kindest face on and said, "I'm so sorry! I should pay more attention."

Before Liam even got a good look at whom he had bumped into, he was violently yanked towards said person. Liam tried to keep his strategically placed smile in place but the being in front of him was like no one he'd seen before. All sorts of bells and whistles (and voices) where going off in Liam's mind at the sight of this man. He became face to face with a bleach white skull with piercing green eyes. The ghost was dressed all in white, with a trench coat and pants and a nice hat placed upon his skull. "Not paying attention is against the rules," he man growled at the smiling boy in front of him. "Not only that but trespassing is too."

"Listen...Mister..." Liam started to say, trying to sound as apologetic as possible. He wanted to get out of there fast, but the ghost had a tight grip on the boy's vest.

"The name's Walker, you punk," the man said in his gruff voice. He looked like he was going to say something else when Liam quickly interrupted.

"Well! Mr. Walker! I'm just passing through; I got lost on my way home. I'm new around these parts, you see." Liam smiled sweetly at him that cleverly masked his growing fear.

"Ignorance of the law does not grant you the right to break it." The ghost's voice grew angrier with every word.

"It won't happen again, Mr. Walker, I swear it!" Liam said, a little more nervous now. This wasn't working the way it was supposed to.

"You're right, it won't happen again. I'll make sure of that. I'm sentencing you to two thousand years in my newly established Jail. Lucky you, you get to be one of my very first...tenants," the larger ghost said with a creepy grin.

Liam's face, if possible, lost even more colour. Jail was one thing he hadn't expected at all in this world.

End Chapter Two


	3. Unwell

It's Gonna Rain

Chapter Three

Unwell

Liam hit the jail floor with a thud. He quickly looked back at the two guards who had been so rude to him. This was how Liam had always envisioned his future: eventually caught and thrown into jail or some mental ward. He had always thought he'd be alive though. Never in a million years had he imagined that he'd be thrown in jail after he'd died!

He ran towards the cell door only to have the guards slam the bars in his face. The two of them laughed sinisterly and adjusted their hats. The two flew off without even saying another word to the ghost. Liam shook for a second after the guards had left.

Then a thought hit him: Ghosts were supposed to be able to become intangible, right? However this was interrupted by another violent voice in his head saying that if it were that easy, it would be laughable. Besides, he hadn't heard Amorpho even once mention that power and he had yet to see any ghosts pass through anything in the Ghost Zone.

He then slumped down to the ground and stared at the floor. He looked at his stupid prison uniform and let out a half sob. This wasn't fun anymore.

A month had passed and things only got worse for the soggy ghost. For one thing, he was a fairly small ghost compared to the other inmates. Also, his habit of hiding behind a smile tended to make the others infuriated with him. He often became the local punching bag because of this. Every time he came up with an escape plan it would blow up in his face. Not only that, but his cell was particularly cold and moist. He hated it more than anything and would go into phases where he would huddle in the corner and mumble things to himself. This, of course, resulted in annoyed guards and neighbouring cell occupants.

THWACK! Liam went flying across the cafeteria and into the cold wall as an angry-looking ghost started to walk towards him. The ghost was tall, dressed in the same black and white striped prison uniform. The ghost wasn't particularly scary; in fact he looked more 'human' than even Liam did. His skin was very pale but still a human colour unlike Liam's blue hue, and his blond hair hung loosely around his face. "You got a problem with me, you Irish pansy!? Or is there some other reason your staring at me?!"

Liam looked over at the boy and winced as he was about to throw another punch at him. Instead he hit the wall beside the shivering ghost. "Listen pal, you're Liam McMillan right?" the blond ghost said, in a hushed tone so that nobody could overhear their conversation. Liam opened his blue pool-like eyes and stared at the greasy-looking teen. "I heard you have the ability to transform into anybody. I think I got a plan to get us all out of here." Liam knew the rules of acting, so he continued to play the frightened victim. As the other ghosts in the cafeteria looked on and cheered on the blond ghost, he nodded and when he was sure that nobody could spot it, he gave the other ghost a small smile.

The other let out a small smile of his own before Liam finally spoke. "By whom do you mean by us? I'm not exactly thrilled with the majority of the population in this facility," Liam said, keeping his voice down as well.

"Well, by us I mean you, me, and of course my lovely girlfriend. I really don't care about the rest of these jerks." He leaned in closer and whispered, "And if it wasn't for your power being essential for my plan I wouldn't give a flying whoop about you either."

Liam gave a small laugh, almost inaudible to anybody but himself. "Perfectly understandable."

At that the other teen backed off from Liam and began to walk off. "My name is Johnny Thirteen by the way. Meet me tomorrow and we'll discuss it."

"Discuss what?" said an ever so familiar voice behind the two teenage ghosts. They both slowly looked behind them to spot the ever-menacing form of Walker standing behind them.

"Nothing… sir," Johnny said slowly, with a little fear lining his voice.

"If it was nothing then you two wouldn't be discussing it, or trying to annihilate each other doing it. This whole place is up in arms! Rowdy behaviour in my prison is against the rules. You know how much I dislike people breaking my rules." The man floated closer, his skull face inches away from Johnny's. The younger ghost started to tremble.

"Well, I guess it was something. We were discussing the benefits of sun tanning as you can see, since we're all in desperate need of some... colour," said a voice that Walker wasn't focusing on. He flipped around and left Johnny to glare at the source: Liam. His ghoulish eyes turned to slits staring that the boy.

The next thing Liam knew, he was being slammed against the wall with even greater force than when Johnny had done it. "You little punk!" screamed the voice of the prison warden. "I hate people like you the most!" If he had to breathe, Liam would be fighting for air as Walker's hand grabbed him around his neck. Walker took a second and then he seemed to be calm again. However the way he spoke now scared Liam more than anything. "I have something special planned for you today. Maybe it'll teach you to behave."

Walker then stormed off with Liam tight in his grip, dragging the Irish lad along. Johnny let out a muffled noise of protest but didn't say a word as the struggling wet ghost was yanked from the cafeteria.

Walker let go of Liam and the ghost landed on his feet, though he wobbled a bit and rubbed his neck before actually examining his new surroundings. He didn't recognize where he was at all. This was a part of the prison he had never been. "Restrain him," Walker commanded. A few of Walker's ghosts grabbed Liam and pushed him down. Liam tried to struggle but they were far too strong. When the ghosts let him go Liam realized he was in a rather tight white jacket with straps all over and his arms tied behind his back. He let out a noise of fright as he noticed he was securely in a straightjacket. He didn't have long to gawk at his new accessory before being pushed forward towards Walker.

Liam let out a dark chuckle before saying, "Finally shipping me off to the nutter ward, are you?" He felt like crying but he forced back his tears with a crazy looking smile on his face. He began to wonder if Walker would bleed if he got cut.

"Oh no, you little punk, I'm putting you in solitary confinement for the rest of the week." He grabbed Liam by his hair and pulled him over to the other side of the room. Liam winced and stumbled over beside the sadistic jailer. His eyes went terribly wide when he saw what Walker had in store for him.

There before them was a huge tank filled entirely with water. In a panic like he never felt before he began to spew out words. "YOU CAN'T! I...I'm not going in there! NO! KEEP IT AWAY!" He began to struggle to escape which only caused his captor to tighten his grip on the boy's hair.

"Not scared of a little water, are you punk?" Liam didn't get to answer before a few of the ghost guards picked him up and dropped him squarely in the tank. He could see the others closing the lid on this liquid prison as he fell.

The water crashed around him and he could feel his already wet body become completely surrounded in the nasty, freezing cold liquid. He tried to scream but no noise came out. He was stuck. His arms tied firmly behind him in the straightjacket caused him to sink without any chance to flail about. He was surrounded by silence and suffocated by the nothing. He wanted to throw up but nothing was even in his stomach; he didn't need to eat so he often didn't, especially seeing as prison food was all he was allowed to eat.

Let's kill Walker.

The bastard's already dead, you moron.

The water! It's everywhere!

Make it stop!

MAKE IT STOP!

His mind screamed. All the voices he had heard before were all talking at once. Like a high school cafeteria. They wouldn't stop jabbering.

I want to...

Please be quiet! Let me out of here!

I WANT TO KILL!

SMASH!

There was a sudden rush as the water flowed out on the floor. Liam fell out of the tank with a thud and pushed himself up on his knees. He heard sirens going off all over the place. How long had he been in the water? He felt sick and the noises only added to the current chaos of his mind. "I'm out of the water, so would you all kindly shut the hell up?" he said, attempting to reach the voices in his head. They all quieted down a bit. He had to focus on the task at hand. Whatever that was. He looked around and saw shards of the broken glass everywhere. He felt somebody behind him suddenly, untying his straitjacket.

"Do you always talk to yourself?" the familiar voice of Johnny Thirteen said with a slightly amused tone to it.

Liam looked back and smiled at the sight of the other ghost. "Only when I think nobody else is around. Why are you helping me?" he asked, slightly puzzled.

"Why did you stand up to Walker for me? I can't just let you be tortured because of me. I may be a Jerk but I'm not heartless...so to speak." They were dead after all, what use did they have for a heart?

Liam's eyes looked sad. He thought for a second on that idea of a heart. He had always considered himself heartless. He had only stood up to Walker because he was particularly mad at everybody that day. He tended to say stupid things when he let his emotions get the better of him. He yet again heard his father's words echoing in his head. Never show your emotions. Never show your emotions. The one thing he must never forget.

Just then a girl with green hair ran in looking completely out of breath, which seemed strange to Liam. Ghosts didn't need to breathe in the first place. She was also in the prison uniform that everybody was forced to wear. The little prison hat looked rather strange on her snakelike hair. "Johnny! The guards are coming!"

Johnny had finally managed to get Liam's straightjacket off. "Quick! Transform into a guard Liam!"

It took him about four seconds to realize people where talking to him as he was lost in his thoughts of emotions. He nodded, still shaking a little from his experience he started to use his powers. Whatever strength he had he put into changing his appearance. With a twist and a flip Liam was no longer Liam. His form became more muscular, his face became harder and his clothes turned into a guard's uniform.

Johnny gave a smile. "Quite a talent, all I can do is control my shadow," he said a little envious of the transforming ghost.

"We have to hurry though," Liam said, mimicking the voice of one of the guards that he had been studying one day. "I only have one hour in this form before I revert back."

"Then we have no time to lose!" the woman said.

"Calm down Kitty, I got this. Pretend you've captured us Liam, and then lead us out the front in the confusion," said with a smile.

"What on earth is going on anyway?" Liam asked curious of the mayhem as the group began to walk through the halls.

A dark smile formed on Johnny's face. "I started a riot in the cafeteria. Funny how a well placed demonic shadow can cause oh so much trouble." Liam couldn't help but laugh at that.

They floated through the halls, Liam holding onto Johnny and kitty's arms to ward off any suspicion. They saw some guards running by chasing other prisoners', none of them stopped them. This was working out quite well.

At least, until they turned a corner to see Walker standing in front of them. "YOU!" he screamed, looking over at the three. All three froze up: this was it, end of the line. "Stop wasting time and get those two back into their cells!" Mentally, all sighed with relief. Liam tried not to smile, but Walker didn't notice at all. He really was that good.

"Yes sir!" Liam said in the guard's voice as he flew quickly past Walker with the other two in tow. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Walker heading towards where Liam was. "We have to go fast; once he finds me gone, he won't be a happy ghost. Which way to the exit?"

"Down this hallway, When we get there we'll turn invisible while you ask for the door to be opened and we'll be scot free!"

"Sounds like a plan." It was actually a fairly decent plan. Liam's plans all failed before because there was no way to get out of sight to transform, save his own cell and everybody would know it was him. This plan… may work. No, it will work!

"HALT!" said the guard at the front door. Liam realized he had zoned out for a second and they were already there with Johnny and Kitty invisible.

"Open the door," Liam said with a stern tone in his voice he had never used before. This was no different than acting in a play. It made him feel all giggly inside. "Walker sent me to get reinforcements. It's getting crazy in there. Let me out now."

The other guard looked confused for a moment and said "Why would he do that? We don't have any guards outside..."

"ARE YOU QUESTIONING WALKERS ORDERS?!" the other ghost said angrily.

The guard let out a yelp and opened the front gate.

Liam zoomed out at mach speed pulling Johnny and kitty with him. The other two almost let out a yelp at his speed but Liam didn't care right now. He was free, he was out. He almost let out a sob of happiness. He looked back just to make sure he was in fact leaving that wretched hive of pain. He could mentally hear Walker's screams as he discovered him missing. The guard was gone from sight so Johnny and Kitty became visible again and Liam transformed back into himself. They didn't say anything to each other; they just smiled and flew as fast as they could.

Walker didn't discover until an hour later that people had escaped in the confusion. He quickly made a mental note that if he ever saw that brat Liam again, he would put him through a greater hell than he ever could imagine.

"I want you all to patrol the outer area. When you find those miserable escapees, show no mercy. You got that?!"

"Yessir!" yelled the ghost guards before breaking away from the group in desperate search for the missing ghosts. They knew they would be the ones to suffer if the inmates weren't captured again.

"That was amazing," Johnny said, putting on his normal clothes, a long jacket and biker boots.

Liam flopped backwards and suspended himself in the air. "I'm just finally glad to be rid of that awful place." He looked over at Johnny and Kitty who were now snuggling with each other. A slight tingle went through his body and hit a road block in his head. What was it like to feel that way? What was it to 'love'? What on earth were they wearing? He found his mind wandering off at the point. How long had he been in the ghost zone if he had no idea how people dressed in the human world anymore?

They were so happy and so deep in thought that none of them noticed when a guard snuck up behind them until he yelled "HALT!" The three flipped around to see a few of Walkers goons among the ecto-trees.

"SHOOT! Let's roll, Kitten!" he said, grabbing Kitty and jumping on some sort of motorized bicycle, something Liam had never seen up close before. Apparently Johnny had hidden it here before he got captured by Walker. "Liam, it's been nice working with you, but dude, we need to split up. Meet you again later!"

Liam only managed to nod before the two wheeled off as far away from there as possible. Liam himself began to fly at top speed in the opposite direction of the two teenage lovers. It didn't bother him that they were leaving. It would just make things more difficult for the guards this way, he thought to himself.

It had been two hours of pure chase and still nobody had much of a lead. Liam had ducked behind some floating trees and for a moment he was safe. They didn't see him here. Liam feared he would be captured again. At that thought he began to shiver. "I ...I don't want to go back in the water," a soft voice muttered. It took Liam a moment before he realized he had said it himself. He could hear the guards circling around the forest. He was trapped and he knew it.

"We have the place surrounded, punk!" Liam froze as he heard the familiar growl of Walker. "Just surrender quietly, you coward and maybe I'll ignore that fact you let two others escape as well."

Liam covered his ears with his hands. He didn't want to be here. He couldn't bear going back to that place. It was hell. This place had quickly become hell. Just like Amorpho said.

There was a strange noise then, something in between a bird and water. With a sudden flash of light Liam knew without a doubt he'd be saved, for in front of him now was a swirling portal of energy. Liam paused for a second before remembering what Amorpho had said about the human world. Could this be a gateway to the human world? Though at this point he couldn't care less as long as long as it led him anywhere but prison. Without a second thought he leaped through the rift in the world. The portal then gave a sudden popping noise and it was gone.

Walker stormed into the small ghostly forest when Liam didn't come out. When he realized Liam wasn't there, he let out a growl and then threw his hat on the ground. "THAT PUNK!"

With a sudden jerk, Liam came flying out of the portal. It closed immediately after its passenger was shot out. It took him a minute to get his bearings; he felt like he had been wrung through a merry go round at mach ten.

He shook his head and looked around and he let out a loud yell of frustration. He was flying airborne above the ocean. "I HAD to say ANYWHERE but prison, didn't I?!" He began to fly at top speed in a desperate attempt to escape the water. He screeched to a halt as he actually got a look around. The panic in him caused him to completely ignore the menacing body of water below him. The sky was blue, the sun was bright and he noticed a sea gull go by. It wasn't green, it wasn't a ghost gull. No, he was back. He was in the human world. He was quite sure exactly where but when he saw an island close by he figured he must be closer to the equator than he had ever been before. He found it hard to tell though because he still felt cold. Nothing seemed to warm him up.

He thought about everything good and hard then. He had made it back. There were humans here.

He could kill again.

A wicked smile crossed his lips as he sped off to find a populated area. Being a ghost will make this game a whole lot more fun… for him at least.

THE END


End file.
